Syracuse, N.Y. - Many Republicans and state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget, but Assemblyman Don Miller, R-Clay, found almost nothing positive in the $132.9 billion plan, calling it a “typical Albany budget from a typical Albany politician.”

Miller, who took office Jan. 1 like Cuomo, criticized the Democrat’s budget — which cut $3.7 billion in spending without raising taxes — as politics as usual. And, Miller said, it’s New York’s businesses that will suffer.

Miller plans to introduce legislation to repeal taxes: the estate tax, the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax. He wants to put what he calls a real cap on property taxes, limiting their growth to zero rather than the 2 percent cap on entire levies that Cuomo and the state Senate have endorsed.

The lawmaker said the governor proposed nothing that would create jobs.

“The only idea that he talked about in his proposal was dividing the state into 10 regions for economic development,” Miller said of Cuomo’s plan to create regional councils that could reward businesses with a pot of $200 million for innovation.

“It’s a reshuffling of the chairs on the Titanic. There’s nothing there to reduce the regulation and the taxes that have gotten us into this mess,” Miller said.

What others said

Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, was more complimentary of the governor’s budget, saying cuts in state spending are needed.

But Barclay added he didn’t see many details in Cuomo’s presentation about reforming the government or formulas that set school aid, which got slashed in the proposal.

“And I didn’t see any mandate relief,” Barclay said of the state’s past practices of mandating that local governments help pay for new programs created in Albany.

Assemblyman Sam Roberts, D-Syracuse, said Cuomo’s ideas — which depend on unions agreeing to wage freezes, billions saved in health care reform and some school districts dealing with double-digit percentage cuts in aid — should have surprised no one.

“This is what he campaigned on,” Roberts said. “This is what he said he was going to do.”

Staff changes

As chief of staff for Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, for 12 years, Sue McSweeney heard her fair share of complaints about how state government can make life hard for business owners and for health care facilities.

Now McSweeney has an view from the other side, running three assisted-living centers in Onondaga and Madison counties.

But she doesn’t blame her former boss for all the regulations she must adhere at her centers.

McSweeney recently left Magnarelli’s office — taking one of the state’s early retirement buyouts — to run the Manlius Home for Adults, the Highland Home for Adults, in Syracuse, and Hamilton Manor, in Hubbardsville.

The paperwork and rules that come with that job aren’t necessarily a creation of the Legislature, she said. The legislators pass a law explaining a goal or idea; it’s the state agencies who make the rules and regulations to put the law into effect, she said.

And it’s often those rules that cause business owners like her so much headache, she said.

“I really, really loved my years at the Assembly,” she said.

Christine Slocum took over McSweeney’s duties for Magnarelli. Slocum worked with Al Stirpe, another Democrat, before he lost his seat last November to Miller.

Teri Weaver’s Albany Notebook is published Sundays in The Post-Standard. Contact Teri at tweaver@syracuse.com or 470-2274.